Following Bertha, the SR 99 Tunneling Machine

Bertha arrived in Elliott Bay on April 2

She's here. After a 5,000 mile journey across the Pacific Ocean, Bertha, the world’s largest-diameter tunneling machine, has arrived by ship in Seattle's Elliott Bay. The show is just getting started. In the coming days, crews will unload Bertha's pieces and begin moving them to the pit where she'll start tunneling (pdf 485 kb) beneath Seattle this summer.

The map to the right lists a number of great spots where you can watch the next chapter in Bertha's journey unfold. We will have a live webcam pointed at the Port of Seattle’s Terminal 46 once the ship has berthed, so you can see what Bertha is up to from anywhere. And don’t forget Bertha is on Twitter. Followers of @BerthaDigsSR99 will continue to get regular updates straight from Bertha herself as she prepares to start digging beneath Seattle.

Other resources

• Celebrate Bertha's arrival at these locations: www.downtownseattle.com/bertha/
• Charting Bertha's course to Seattle handout (pdf 234 kb)
• Check out this short video (or view on Youtube) to see the inner workings of a tunnel boring machine.
• Go to Milepost 31 in Pioneer Square to see a motorized, 10-foot-long model of Bertha.
• Our Flickr site has photos of crews building the machine Japan and crews in Seattle preparing for the machine’s arrival.

Bertha press releases

• World's largest tunneling machine to arrive by ship in Seattle tomorrow, April 1, 2013
• SR 99 tunneling machine sets sail for Seattle, March 19, 2013
• SR 99 tunneling machine almost set for trip to Seattle, March 6, 2013
• Testing time for State Route 99 tunneling machine, Dec. 21, 2012
• SR 99 tunneling machine tweets her name: Bertha, Dec. 10, 2012
• Tunnel-boring machine replica debuts at Milepost 31 in Seattle, Aug. 1, 2012
• Hitachi Zosen signs contract to build SR 99 tunnel boring machine, Oct. 13, 2011
• Hitachi Zosen selected to build SR 99 tunnel boring machine, July 18, 2011

Coming soon... View Bertha's arrival on live webcam